Delhi beat The Lions last Friday in Delhi.

The chasing team won the only 2 IPL matches played at Kanpur.

Betting Tips

Back the team batting second after the toss.

Match Overview

Delhi have won 2 of the 3 matches between these 2 sides. When they met last Friday The Lions batted first and set a massive 208 in their 20 overs. Delhi chased the score down with 15 balls to spare thanks to 61 from Sanju Samson and a magnificent 97 off 43 balls from Rishabh Pant.

Delhi have won 4 and lost 7 this season. They started the season losing to RCB in Bangalore. They then won 2 matches in a row setting decent totals and then defending them. A five match losing run followed when the team struggled to get enough runs on the board. This culminated in being bowled out for 67 in Mohali.

Delhi then won 2 matches in a row at home thanks to the batsmen aggressively chasing down totals. The second of these was the defeat of The Lions mentioned above. The batting then collapsed again in their last match against Mumbai when they were bowled out for just 66.

The Lions have had a similarly disappointing season. They have also just won 4 matches. They have been unlucky with injuries to key players. Dwayne Bravo has been injured all season. Andrew Tye is their leading wicket taker. He had to leave the tournament due to a shoulder injury. Finally they lost Brendon McCullum who is one of their leading run scorers.

The Lions managed to show some fight in their last match when they defeated Punjab at Mohali. The Lions were already out of the tournament and Punjab needed to the win to help them into the playoff zone. Punjab set an above par 189 which the Lions managed to chase down. Dwayne Smith played his best innings of the season scoring 74 off 39 balls and the other batsmen all chipped in.

Green Park in Kanpur has only previously been used for 2 IPL matches. Both matches were won by the chasing team. In the first The Lions restricted KKR to 124 which they chased down inside 14 overs. In the second Mumbai scored 172 which The Lions got with 13 balls to spare. There was also a T20 International there between India and England earlier this year. India scored 147 which England chased down with 11 balls to spare. It seems that dew can be a factor here making batting easier and bowling harder in the second innings.

Delhi and The Lions are level in the Cricsq ratings. They both have 80.4 points. Very early prices on Betfair have The Lions at 2.04 and Delhi at 1.96. I do not see there being a big home advantage because this is The Lion's first match at Kanpur this season. I will wait for the toss and back the chasing team. I know there have only been 3 matches at the ground but the evidence suggests batting is easier in the second innings.

Gujarat Lions

Batting

The Lions have lost Brendon McCullum due to injury. He scored 319 runs opening the innings with a strike rate of 147. In the successful run chase against Punjab Dwayne Smith opened with Ishan Kishan.

Smith was lucky getting dropped several times but he went on to make a match winning 74 off just 39 balls. This included 4 sixes and 8 fours. It was by far his best innings of the season. He now has 177 runs from 10 innings. Ishan Kishan has 182 runs.

Suresh Raina has batted at 3 all season. He is The Lion's top run scorer with 424. He has a strike rate of 146. Dinesh Karthik finished the run chase against Punjab with 35 off 23 balls. He now has 321 runs for the season with a strike rate of 140.

Aaron Finch has played in the middle order for most of the season. He has 228 runs with a decent strike rate of 165. The late middle order consists of Jadeja at 6 and Faulkner at 7. Jadeja has 125 runs and Faulkner has just 32 runs from 4 innings.

Bowling

The loss of Andrew Tye was disappointing for the Lions. He was their top wicket taker with 12 and had their best economy rate of 6.7 runs an over.

Basil Thampi now leads a seam attack that has given away a lot of runs. He has 10 wickets but has been expensive going at 9.3 an over. Pradeep Sangwan has 4 wickets from 3 matches but has gone at 9.9 an over. James Faulkner has an economy rate of 9.8.

Dhawal Kulkarni returned to the side against Punjab. He was their best bowler taking 1 for 24 off his four overs. He had been dropped after 4 matches early in the season where he was very expensive. In 2016 he took 18 wickets with an economy rate of 7.4 an over. It is good for the Lions to see him come back to form.

Ravindra Jadeja is The Lions top spinner. He has 5 wickets from 10 matches. He too has been expensive with an economy rate of 9.6 an over. Ankit Soni has 2 wickets from 5 matches but has been economical going at 7.1 an over.

Delhi Daredevils

Batting

The Delhi batsmen should be confident after chasing down 208 against The Lions last week. The batsmen have been inconsistent scoring over 200 twice and being bowled out for under 100 twice.

Sanju Samson and Karun Nair open the batting. Samson is Delhi's leading run scorer with 374. He has a strike rate of 144. Nair has been disappointing scoring 161 runs from 100 innings with a strike rate of just 112.

Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer bat at 3 and 4. Pant has 281 runs with a great strike rate of 172. His best score was that 97 off 43 balls against The Lions. Iyer has 207 runs with a strike rate of 136.

The Delhi middle order has consisted of Corey Anderson, Chris Morris and Marlon Samuels. Anderson has 130 runs from 8 innings. He has been poor this season but did finish off the 2 recent successful run chases. Morris has 154 runs with a useful strike rate of 164. He has been injured the last few games and replaced by Samuels. Samuels has had only has 1 chance to bat where he failed scoring just 1 run.

Bowling

Chris Morris is Delhi's leading wicket taker with 12. He has an economy rate of 7.7. Pat Cummings has also been good taking 11 wickets with an economy rate 8.3. Rabada is the third overseas seamer. He has 6 wickets from 6 matches but has gone at 8.9 an over.

Zaheer Khan was back from injury against Mumbai on Saturday. He has 7 wickets from 8 matches with an economy rate of 8.1. Mohammed Shami has been expensive going at 9.9 an over. He also just has 2 wickets from 5 matches.

Amit Mishra is the top spinner in the side. He has 9 wickets from 11 matches with an economy rate of 8.4 an over. He has been joined by Shahbaz Nadeem in 5 matches. He has 4 wickets and has gone at 6.9 an over.

Corey Anderson has been used to bowl seam for a few overs. He has 3 wickets but has been expensive going at 10.9 an over.